After thousands of sailings, the two generations of bosses met and laughed away their grudges. On January 21, Zhou Hongyi appeared in a familiar red dress and started a conversation with Fu Sheng. This is also the first time that the two have reunited on the same stage since Fu Sheng left 360 in tears in 2008 when they had bad relations. Fu Sheng "confessed" his affection to Zhou Hongyi in the song "Broad Sea and Sky" and finally admitted that he was his noble man.
Zhou Hongyi once said quite arrogantly: "The smartest person in Hubei is undoubtedly Chen Yizhou, Lei Jun is second, and I am third."
The world is so small. Zhou Hongyi and Lei Jun, one of the smart people he recognized, became the teachers of Fu Sheng, a rising star in the business world.
The grievances and resentments surrounding these three people once became gossip news that everyone talked about on the Internet.
The beginning of Fu Sheng's career and fame was when he led the team to build 360 Security Guard under Zhou Hongyi; but later the two turned against each other, and Fu Sheng turned to Lei Jun. In the "Jinshan Group", which also focuses on security products, he led Cheetah Mobile to the stage of the New York Stock Exchange.
During the years when Fu Sheng was between the two giants, many discords arose between the three entrepreneurial geniuses whose destinies were intertwined. They did not hesitate to criticize each other with words, adding many classic stories to the world of the Internet.
However, as the Internet market structure has been established, the three people who were once at war with each other have gradually lost their edge.
Recently, Zhou Hongyi, who is on the cusp of the storm, finally reunited publicly with his former general Fu Sheng.
A live conversation represents the passage of time, and how many grievances and hatreds are discussed in a joke.
The former "Red Cannon" Zhou Hongyi put aside the injustice and anger of the past, and stepped into the same river of large models with many of his old acquaintances.
A public ice-breaking live broadcast
Two big guys who were once incompatible appeared on the same poster.
On January 17, 360 Group Chairman and CEO Zhou Hongyi, Cheetah Mobile Chairman and CEO, and Orion Star Chairman Fu Shengguan announced that they would live broadcast on the same stage.
This is also the first time that Zhou Hongyi and Fu Sheng have reunited on the same stage since the two had a bad relationship in 2008 and Fu Sheng left 360 in tears.
In the following days, Zhou Hongyi also used his video account to promote the live broadcast many times, attracting many people's attention. Fu Sheng posted a poster in his WeChat Moments with the caption "Are you surprised? Are you surprised?" The humor is fully displayed.
On January 21, this live broadcast, which was watched by the outside world, was finally unveiled. At 15:53 in the afternoon, Zhou Hongyi appeared in a familiar red dress, and then took the stage to have a conversation with Fu Sheng.
Objectively speaking, the atmosphere between Zhou Hongyi and Fu Sheng throughout the live broadcast was quite harmonious. The two only humorously mentioned their past conflicts: Fu Sheng joked that Zhou Hongyi did not know enough about his employees; Zhou Hongyi teased Fu Sheng, who had just completed a two-hour speech, for being a "talkative" and spent more time discussing the products and market logic of large AI models.
This also marked that a pair of old friends and enemies finally shook hands and made peace in the passage of time, even though they had fought fiercely.
In 2001, Fu Sheng, who had just graduated from university, went to Beijing to work hard. The following year, he joined 3721 Company founded by Zhou Hongyi and was appreciated. Subsequently, whether 3721 was acquired by Yahoo in 2003 or Zhou Hongyi left Yahoo to found Qihoo in 2005, Fu Sheng chose to follow closely.
It was in Qihu that there was a gap between the pair of Bole and Qianlima.
According to public information, after starting his own business again, Zhou Hongyi wanted to ambush Baidu and led more than a hundred engineers to focus on the search department. Fu Sheng, with three people, began to attack safety products.
"China Industry and Commerce" magazine once wrote that at that time, the security department had so few personnel and its business was not core, so that Fu Sheng did not even have to attend regular company meetings.
But 360 Security Guards under the leadership of Fu Sheng quickly ran out of a steep growth curve. In contrast, the search products polished by Zhou Hongyi are tepid.
The comparison between the two made Zhou Hongyi feel hurt.
At the same time, 360 Security Guards was deeply "branded" by Fu Sheng from head to toe, which further aggravated Zhou Hongyi's uneasiness and suspicion. According to the "Fu Sheng Oral History" written by media person Cheng Lingfeng during his interview with the person involved, 360 Security Guards' The name is also closely related to Fu Sheng: Fu Sheng was born on March 6, the starting number of his ID number is 360, and he likes to play Xbox 360. Later, the department led by Fu Sheng was regarded by Zhou Hongyi as "a needle cannot penetrate, and water cannot pour in."
"You have done a good job in 360, but I have not done a good job in search, so you can jump up and fight with me?" One day in May 2008, the conflict between the two continued to intensify. When Zhou Hongyi and Fu Sheng had different opinions on a product feature, they finally said this sentence, clarifying the conflict between the two.
This year, Fu Sheng finally chose to leave 360 and joined the graphics and imaging software company "Keniu Imaging" as CEO in 2009. After the expiration of the non-competition period, he expanded Keniu's business territory into the security field. The former master and apprentice became rivals.
In 2010, Fu Sheng accepted the olive branch offered by Lei Jun. Kingsoft Security and Keniu officially merged to form an independent company. Fu Sheng became the CEO of Kingsoft Network, and various strategies were directed at the hinterland of 360 anti-virus.
Lei Jun on the left, Zhou Hongyi on the right
It was this decision that made Zhou Hongyi feel "betrayed" by his old subordinates, and he started a distance battle with Fu Sheng.
Fu Sheng also showed his impulsive side. When faced with long messages from Zhou Hongyi and even 360 executives, Fu Sheng's approach was to refute them one by one and directly wrote "Response: 19 Lies Fabricated by Zhou Hongyi".
Later, Fu Sheng did not hide his "hatred" for Zhou Hongyi, saying that one of his noble men was Xiaomi Lei Jun, and the other was Zhang Ying of Jingwei China. Both of them were big bosses who had helped Fu Sheng after leaving 360, but they never mentioned Zhou Hongyi, who had introduced them.
A story about Chollima and Bole, which eventually turned into a conflict between teachers and students. While fighting each other, the two parties also exposed their dark sides of human nature to the public.
The past of "Red Cannon"
During the days when he and Fu Sheng were fighting each other, some people commented that Zhou Hongyi's approach was "the bird is gone and the bow is hidden", but he didn't seem to care. He speaks without restraint and doesn't know how to bow his head... this has long been written into his character.
He once said publicly: "The only thing I can't do is not to retaliate." In the past many years, he has also implemented this sentence personally. When facing rivals in the market, Zhou Hongyi often scolds them whenever they disagree. Because of his fiery temper, he was nicknamed the "Red Cannon."
This style of conduct was reflected as early as when Zhou Hongyi searched the market.
In 2002, the search war was fierce, and Baidu and 3721 developed to the point where they deleted each other's browser entries. After a disagreement, Baidu Robin Li directly took Zhou Hongyi and 3721 to court in September 2003, suing the latter for unfair competition.
At that time, 3721 had been established for 5 years, Baidu had just been established for 3 years, and the two founders were still on the front line. In the court, both Zhou Hongyi and Robin Li were present in person, and the confrontation was very quarrelsome.
According to Zhou Hongyi's own recollection: In the court, the presiding female judge asked me: "Baidu accused you of deleting their content, have you done it?" Robin Li responded: "He must have done it." I quickly answered with a smile: "I did it, but he did it first. He did all the bad things I did."
According to online rumors, after the court hearing, the two business geniuses were still at war with each other. Zhou Hongyi shouted to Robin Li at the entrance of the court: "If you don't accept it, let's fight!" Robin Li "responsed" on the spot until the two were separated by the onlookers.
In the end, the lawsuit ended with 3721 losing.
Zhou Hongyi, second from left, Robin Li, first from right
The dispute between Zhou Hongyi and Hubei fellow Lei Jun not only revolves around the "rebel general" Fu Sheng and the security software market. In 2011 and 2012, Xiaomi and 360 successively entered the smartphone market.
In 2012, Zhou Hongyi and Lei Jun started a war of words on Weibo. Zhou Hongyi called Xiaomi mobile phones "grains" and smeared domestic products; Lei Jun retorted, saying that there was a problem with the configuration of the 360 special machine.
The confrontation reached its climax when Zhou Hongyi called Lei Jun to arrange a fight in Chaoyang Park.
If Lei Jun's previous rebuttals were still focused on the technical field, then he was forced to lose his temper from then on. In response to Zhou Hongyi, he said, "I suggested that he (Zhou) go to court to resolve the matter" and "Xiaomi and I will definitely accompany you"...
Some people joke that Zhou Hongyi is good at "porcelain marketing" and uses quarrels to complete marketing at a low cost. And in those years, Lao Zhou "does whatever is hot, and scolds whoever is hot. If you have not been scolded, it means you are not good enough."
Despite the criticism, it cannot be denied that every time Zhou Hongyi strikes hard, he has brought overwhelming attention and popularity to himself and 360.
Amidst the "bloody storm" of words, "cannon" became his most distinctive label. While he attacks everywhere on the Internet, he is invincible; he also has many achievements in the mall, winning and losing:
His 360 became the leader in the domestic security market, but in the end it failed to win the search crown and also lost the smartphone market... Looking back now, I can only say that the big bosses also used to be angry.
Give up everything and be willing to play a supporting role
When the Internet completed 20 years of rapid growth and bid farewell to the era of wild growth and full of rivers and lakes, Zhou Hongyi finally changed.
As early as 2016, in an interview, Zhou Hongyi publicly revealed: "I feel that I have improved a lot in the past two years...I basically don't curse people in public."
In 2017, his former rivals have become unshakable giants, and their interest and energy have been diverted by bike sharing, new retail and live broadcasting. On this occasion, Zhou Hongyi, who has always occupied a central position in the public opinion field, unexpectedly chose to fade away and retire for a period of time.
Even this year, an article titled "People Miss Zhou Hongyi" hit the Internet. It wrote jokingly: Back then, you kicked Baidu, punched Tencent, despised Alibaba, and troubled Lei Jun...
The article misses not only the tense "Zhou Cannon", but also an era when the pattern is uncertain, opportunities are everywhere, and everyone can become an innovative dark horse.
When Zhou Hongyi finally "returned", he felt much more at ease, and was obviously no longer as ambitious as he was more than 10 years ago: he chose the main channel of focusing on "great security" for 360; he also publicly responded to an article in "People", saying that he used to do this and that, and was not focused enough.
When he put aside his "obsession" with opening up new markets, he finally learned to curb many of his sharp edges, and even began to shake hands with "old friends" who had been at odds with each other.
In 2018, Zhou Hongyi posted a photo of himself with Robin Li, with the caption, "Today you are allowed to bring mobile phones into the venue, and the delegates are extremely happy." From the outside, Zhou and Li, immersed in the "happy" atmosphere, had just wiped out their previous grievances.
In 2022, Zhou Hongyi posted a photo of himself and Lei Jun, and said that the two were elected vice presidents of the Beijing Federation of Industry and Commerce at the same time. He also humorously joked that Lei Jun "also likes red ties."
At this point, the old discord between the two Hubei fellows is no longer important.
Today's Zhou Hongyi still has a sharp meaning in his words, but he is no longer aggressive.
A few days ago, during Fengmaniu's live broadcast, he demolished the stage of host and new media community entrepreneur Cheng Qian.
But after the latter apologized, he was quite generous and said: "You don't need to apologize. Compared with what I have done before, this kind of thing is very common. You may do it again in the future. The most important thing is that you can truly review it, know from the bottom of your heart how to improve, and turn mistakes into opportunities."
"At this age, I just try not to offend people and make friends as much as possible." He also said the same during a live broadcast with his former "apprentice" Fu Sheng.
Not only that, read through Zhou Hongyi’s public speeches in recent years. Zhou Hongyi, who once "should be scolded" and "do whatever is hot", actually told "Chinese Entrepreneur" magazine in 2022 that he would "be willing to be a supporting role": "In the real business world, the protagonist dies quickly, and the supporting role will always live on." "In the second half of the Internet, Internet companies are definitely supporting roles."
The reason for this is because "everyone is talking about ecology, but in fact, when ecology becomes bigger, everyone is a supporting role. When it comes to security, you can't take over the spotlight, you must be protected unconsciously."
This may explain the contrast he shows today: when the Internet was in its infancy, pioneer Zhou Hongyi wanted to single-handedly dominate the direction of the entire market, seeking victory in danger and finding gold in the sand; but as the industry matured, the logic of the market in turn reshaped the psychology of participant Zhou Hongyi.
This 53-year-old entrepreneur dressed in red finally put down his "cannon" and chose to move forward in the business world in another way.
author|Dong Wenshu
edit|Dong Yuqing
operations|Liu Shan